Rising rates of obesity and related metabolic disorders among the young are urgent public health problems. Despite this, few data are available to guide our understanding of the role of food intake patterns in the etiology of these problems. This study is designed to carry out secondary analyses of the longitudinal National Growth and Health Study (NGHS) to examine the effects of food intake patterns on the development of body fat and physiologic components of the metabolic syndrome. The NGHS enrolled 2,379 nine and ten-year old girls in 1987-1988 and followed them for nine years generating a wealth of diet, activity, and anthropometric data. Nearly 90% of the girls originally enrolled were followed through year 10 of the study and about half of the participants were black. This application is a collaborative partnership between investigators at Boston University School of Medicine and at the University of Cincinnati's Children's Hospital Medical Center (one of the original NGHS sites). The specific aims of the proposal include the following: 1) to create a food-based data set from diet records collected over nine years in the NGHS by linking NDS data with Pyramid Serving Database for USDA Survey Food Codes to create food pyramid intake information for each girl, 2) to estimate the effects of food intake patterns, as defined by the 2005 Dietary Guidelines, on total body fat change as well as central adiposity in black and white adolescent girls (starting at 9-10 years of age), 3) to estimate the effects of such food intake patterns on selected features of the metabolic syndrome (i.e., serum triglycerides, HDL-cholesterol, insulin resistance, and blood pressure in the girls), and 4) to use the above results to guide the development of a food-based intervention designed to prevent pediatric obesity and related disorders. This R21 application is innovative in its use of unique methods for estimating comprehensive food serving information from diet records collected in an existing cohort, thereby enabling the evaluation of the current Dietary Guidelines in this cohort. The wealth of longitudinal data in this multi-ethnic group of girls makes it an even more valuable resource. This study will not only create a valuable food-based data set for use in future analyses by us and other investigators, but it will also further our understanding of food-based effects on these outcomes and may help to guide dietary recommendations during this crucial developmental period. [unreadable] [unreadable] [unreadable]